


Breaking

by Mello_Drama_Reborn



Category: DREAM!ing (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, but I wrote it anyway, there is nothing soft in this fic it is just bottled up emotions and violence and bad things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-19
Updated: 2018-10-19
Packaged: 2019-08-04 06:42:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16341773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mello_Drama_Reborn/pseuds/Mello_Drama_Reborn
Summary: It's Yanagi's first year at Shinonome, and he's still trying to figure out how to make his partnership with Kasuka work. It's not.





	Breaking

**Author's Note:**

> Just a warning this fic pulls a lot from stories/tropes associated with domestic abuse, so if you have any experiences with that you may want to stay away from this one.  
> (Also if you read my other Yanagi/Kasuka fic, this is... not that. This violence is not at all kinky. Just angsty.)

“There's no need to be so nervous, Kasuka. It's just us here, after all.”

Yanagi gave Kasuka a comforting smile, wishing that it would somehow turn the uncomfortable, nervous man sitting across from him into anyone else.

The two of them sat on opposite sides of a small karaoke room, Yanagi leaning back into the plush pink sofa while Kasuka sat stiffly in his. Yanagi had a foamy pink soda drink in a tall, curved glass sitting on the low table in front of him; Kasuka had ordered a hot tea, which he thought might help his throat.  
Kasuka wasn't used to singing, just like he wasn't used to Shinonome’s new yume system, or the concept of charisma in general. Today was another one of Yanagi’s attempts to fix that.

“You know, I've gone on a few dates here. It's a pretty nice place, right?” Yanagi tried to laugh, but Kasuka only muttered something dark and unintelligible in reply, and Yanagi had to force himself not to frown. “Would it be more fun for you if you thought of this as a date?”  
That got Kasuka's attention; though as usual, Yanagi didn't really like having it.  
“Just relax, okay? We’re just here to have fun.”

Kasuka gave a quick nod, and Yanagi reached for the room’s remote.

“May I pick out a song for you?”

“Of course! Although, I probably won't be able to sing it well…”

“It's alright; if you’re having trouble, I'll sing along with you, okay? We have to work on our unison, after all.”

Kasuka immediately gave him another eager nod, and Yanagi smiled at him before picking up the song catalog, taping a thoughtful finger on the screen as he wondered what to pick.

Yanagi and Kasuka had been partners for a few months now, but Yanagi still hadn't found a good way to produce him. It would have been one thing if Kasuka had simply been intimidating - that he could have worked with, manipulated into a rebellious, bad-boy appeal. But Kasuka was disturbing, unsettling even at his least dangerous and too disgusting even to earn affection through pity. Yanagi couldn't even endear anyone to him by flaunting their good relationship, since Kasuka's affection for him had twisted into something unsightly, and so Shinonome’s new partially charisma-based grading that Yanagi had originally thought would be his easy ride to the top seat had instead become his downfall.

Yanagi had to stop a moment to breathe as his mind traveled down the familiar line of thought. Yanagi had worked hard to prepare for Shinonome- he was athletic and his grades were excellent, and as for charisma, he'd already became known as one of the “Heaven 3” in his first year, his every day crowded with outings with his admirers. By the standards of the school or anyone else, he should've been an obvious contender for the top seat - but charisma was graded in pairs, and he just had to be paired with the most wretched person capable of getting into the “Elite” class.

Willing himself to focus, Yanagi forced himself to pay attention to the man sitting across from him. Just as he thought, a softer song didn't do anything to smooth out Kasuka's creep-factor; he just looked awkward, and tired, and pathetic in how scared and uncharming he sounded singing the cheerful love song. With Kasuka's eyes on the monitor, Yanagi let himself grit his teeth; he knew that he would be able to do better in the dream world, but even with all the possibilities the dreamscape provided him, it was impossible to think of anything charming to bring out in him - plus, trying to find something attractive in a man was irritating enough, but doing so with the fear that Kasuka might see, notice what he's looking for and take it as some sign that he was reciprocating his sick affection--- it made his stomach turn.  
Looking back down at the monitor in his hands to search for another song to try, Yanagi felt the frustration he'd been bottling up boil up inside of him:  
_It's because of you that I'll never have the top seat._  
_It's because of you that I'll never be able to find a cure for Yuri’s disease._  
_It's because of you that I'm going to waste three years here, and in that time Yuri will likely die, die because there's no cure for her disease because I didn't have access to the information the top seat would've given me and it's all your-_

Yanagi didn't know when he started speaking his thoughts out loud. He didn't know when his voice started drowning out Kasuka's terrible singing or the too-cheerful music, he didn’t hear anything until the scream followed by the sound of glass shattering.

Yanagi looked down to see Kasuka trembling in front of him. Curled around himself, Kasuka let out one his gross sounding sobs, and Yanagi felt his arm rise to bring down what was left of his shattered glass over his head again, but then he met Kasuka’s eyes and felt the jagged handle fall on the floor instead.

“Kasuka… Oh, Kasuka, I'm so sorry, are you okay?”

Yanagi felt himself start to panic, looked around for a napkin or something to wipe off the blood and settled for his handkerchief, only to crouch down and find Kasuka’s forehead riddled with shattered glass.

_If anyone learns about this, your chances at the top seat are finished._

“Tch-” Without thinking Yanagi had tried to pull out one of the glass shards, and Kasuka's eyes widened on him as a drop of blood formed on his fingertip. “Ah, don't worry about me-”

_Why would he?_  
_He just got attacked by the person he loved, he trusted, most._  
_What if he breaks for good this time?_  
_After finally starting to untangle his twisted ego from whatever his family had done to it, after finally making some progress towards making him “Normal”,_  
_What if he becomes irreparable?_

“Kasuka, Kasuka I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry I didn't mean to, you didn't do anything wrong Kasuka-”

_What if you're stuck with a broken, irredeemable partner for the next three years?  
No partner means no dream lives, means no top seat._

“We need to leave, we need to- shit, I have to pay for the cup too.” Yanagi felt his face creasing with frustration, but he felt Kasuka's shocked eyes still on him and forced on a comforting smile. “You'll be fine, everything will be fine. Can you stand? Here, let me help you.”

Kasuka was still trembling when Yanagi pulled him up, but he didn't flinch back, and Yanagi couldn't imagine what was going through his head, if his twisted mind was somehow still making excuses for him. He squeezed Kasuka closer to him even as the thought made something painful twist in his gut.

Yanagi left far more money on the counter than was necessary to cover the room and the glass, making a mental note to himself to pay the building hush-money later as he hurried Kasuka into the street. Yanagi stayed on his bleeding side in a poor attempt to hide it from view, and for once he was glad that Kasuka grew his hair out specifically to hide his face as the two moved like fugitives on the run. Supporting Kasuka's weight, Yanagi couldn't help but notice how much he was bleeding, forcing himself not to flinch as blood dripped into his shoulder as they ran.  
He made for their room as soon as they were back on campus - going to the infirmary was out of the question, if any of the faculty found out about this it'd be all over. After another moment of panic, Yanagi settled on laying a towel out on the couch and resting Kasuka there, nearly forgetting to change out of the blood-soaked jacket he was wearing before calling Shinya with shaking hands.

“Hello? Yes, can you come over? No, not to play- please bring any medical equipment you have with y- no, no, don't call anyone from the infirmary, just you. Don't bring Shigure either- yes, please, immediately, thank you-”

He got the feeling Shinya was expecting Yanagi to be the one bleeding out, which made sense in retrospect thanks to his track record, so his eyes widened in shock when he instead found Kasuka lying on a blood soaked towel, groaning from his quite probable concussion.

“What happened? Is he okay?!”

“He-”

“I fell.”  
Kasuka's voice was more assertive than either expected from him in his state, both turning to look at him with mouths open.  
“I fell, and hit my head on some glass…”

“... That's right. I'm sure you know about things like that, right, Shinya?”

Shinya gave Yanagi an unreadable look, and for a moment he feared he'd try to push it further, but then Kasuka let out another groan and Shinya turned away from him, suddenly another person as he ordered Yanagi to get him another cloth and a bowl of water.  
Soon Shinya was sitting beside the couch, face focused as he removed the glass from Kasuka's forehead with a pair of tweezers. Yanagi hovered anxiously, occasionally leaving to replace the water when too much blood got in it. Kasuka flinched at first as Shinya worked, but even though he'd lost less blood than Yanagi had thought, he definitely had some sort of blunt trauma, finally passing out half-way through the process. With just the two of them, the air in the room was almost unbearably tense, but eventually it got to the point where Shinya could wash the blood from Kasuka’s forehead and bandage the wound.

“Alright, I'm done. He should be fine for now, but you should make sure he goes to a doctor later.” Shinya wiped his own forehead with his wrist, taking a relieved sigh before dunking his reddened hands in the water bowl.

“Do you need anything? Some milk?”

“I'll be fine.” Shinya smiled, but it quickly faded, Yanagi tensing unintentionally. “... Hanabusa-kun, what really happened here?”

Yanagi didn't know how to reply, staring at him in shocked silence. Eventually Shinya just sighed.

“I've seen wounds caused by all sorts of things, and you're right that I've also fallen into a lot of glass…” He let the silence finish his thought, looking to Yanagi to respond. Yanagi stayed silent, and Shinya looked genuinely uncomfortable when he eventually continued, “I'm just worried about my classmate.”

Yanagi was desperately fighting down panic, telling himself that even if Shinya knew, he couldn't prove anything, that he was still safe. He could lie, but his gut was still twisted half a dozen ways with guilt, and Shinya had just done him a favor, and he couldn't handle the weight of another lie, so he settled with “... It won't happen again.”

Shinya’s expression settled into something Yanagi couldn't quite read, unsure if it was sadness or disappointment or something in between, but all he said was “Take care of him.”

“I will. I promise.”

And then Shinya shut the door behind him, and Yanagi sat down on the couch and stroked Kasuka’s hair. The gesture was more for him than for Kasuka, just like his apologies had been.  
He wondered again if Kasuka knew that.


End file.
